Scientists comb E. coli DNA for cure
Source: Agencies |
June 13, 2011, Monday
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GERMAN authorities said they haven't yet been able to resolve how sprouts at a farm became contaminated with an aggressive strain of E. coli that has been blamed for 33 deaths.
Officials determined on Friday that sprouts grown at the farm in Lower Saxony state, in northern Germany, were the culprit in the outbreak which has sickened more than 3,000 people.
But the state's agriculture ministry said yesterday that it still isn't clear whether workers brought in the bug, or whether the bacteria got onto the farm on seeds or by some other means.
The ministry said tests on some 1,100 samples, nearly 300 of them from the farm, are ongoing in an effort to answer that question. But it said that they have produced no positive results yet.
Scientists are quickly combing the DNA of the killer bacteria behind the world's worst E. coli outbreak to find clues about how to treat patients and prevent future epidemics. So far, one strain from a German patient has been sequenced by Chinese and German scientists. While the genetic information is preliminary, experts said there are a few hints about where the bacteria came from and why it might be so lethal.
The E. coli causing Europe's massive outbreak is likely the product of another strain first detected a decade ago in Germany, but with some dangerous mutations, experts said.
So far the bug has killed 33 people and sickened nearly 3,100, including several hundred who have developed life-threatening kidney failure.
Flemming Scheutz, head of the World Health Organization's Collaborating Centre laboratory in Denmark, said the strain is particularly good at picking up new genes.
Because E. coli is constantly evolving, it is riddled with genes swapped from other strains found in animals and humans, giving it countless opportunities to acquire something lethal, according to the WTO.
"It's just very unfortunate that in this case, it recombined and took on these (dangerous) genes and that it happened to do it in the food chain," Scheutz said.
He said some previously seen related strains were also quite toxic but that scientists needed more samples to have a better understanding of how the new strain behaves.
"It's like looking at a family photo with three people and the 50 others are missing," he said.
Officials determined on Friday that sprouts grown at the farm in Lower Saxony state, in northern Germany, were the culprit in the outbreak which has sickened more than 3,000 people.
But the state's agriculture ministry said yesterday that it still isn't clear whether workers brought in the bug, or whether the bacteria got onto the farm on seeds or by some other means.
The ministry said tests on some 1,100 samples, nearly 300 of them from the farm, are ongoing in an effort to answer that question. But it said that they have produced no positive results yet.
Scientists are quickly combing the DNA of the killer bacteria behind the world's worst E. coli outbreak to find clues about how to treat patients and prevent future epidemics. So far, one strain from a German patient has been sequenced by Chinese and German scientists. While the genetic information is preliminary, experts said there are a few hints about where the bacteria came from and why it might be so lethal.
The E. coli causing Europe's massive outbreak is likely the product of another strain first detected a decade ago in Germany, but with some dangerous mutations, experts said.
So far the bug has killed 33 people and sickened nearly 3,100, including several hundred who have developed life-threatening kidney failure.
Flemming Scheutz, head of the World Health Organization's Collaborating Centre laboratory in Denmark, said the strain is particularly good at picking up new genes.
Because E. coli is constantly evolving, it is riddled with genes swapped from other strains found in animals and humans, giving it countless opportunities to acquire something lethal, according to the WTO.
"It's just very unfortunate that in this case, it recombined and took on these (dangerous) genes and that it happened to do it in the food chain," Scheutz said.
He said some previously seen related strains were also quite toxic but that scientists needed more samples to have a better understanding of how the new strain behaves.
"It's like looking at a family photo with three people and the 50 others are missing," he said.
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